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SEP Party to Hold Public Meeting in London in Support for Assange, Manning

LONDON (Sputnik) – The UK Socialist Equality Party (SEP) will hold a public meeting in London on Sunday, aimed at mobilizing public support for ensuring justice and freedom for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and former informant of the platform, Chelsea Manning, the SEP National Secretary, Chris Marsden, told Sputnik Spanish Service.
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"Our public meeting in London Sunday, preceded by meetings in Australia and India, is part of a global campaign to mobilize workers and young people to defeat this political conspiracy and secure justice and freedom for Assange and Manning", Marsden said.

Marsden called the detention of Assange for the violation of bail conditions a cruel punishment, which also prevented the WikiLeaks founder from properly defending himself in the proceedings of his possible extradition to the United States.

READ MORE: WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Slams Ecuador for Making Assange's Life in 'Miserable'

"Sweden is giving a press conference Monday to declare whether it will resurrect its own discredited efforts to persecute him. Chelsea Manning faces a return to prison as early as next week for refusing to testify against him. The official media lie machine is in overdrive, spreading fake news in the service of US and British imperialism's vendetta against WikiLeaks", Marsden argued.

Manning's Bail Denial Shows Prosecutors Need Her Testimony to Imprison Assange
WikiLeaks leaped in the spotlight back in 2010 as the platform revealed the leaked video of the killing of two Reuters staffers by the US forces' airstrike in Iraq in 2007, which became high-profile. The group has since published hundreds of thousands of other classified materials, obtained by it with the help of Chelsea, then known as Bradley Manning.

Manning subsequently received 35 years in jail for leaking the information to WikiLeaks and was released in May 2017 after spending seven years in prison. Her sentence was commuted by former US President Barack Obama during his final days in office in early 2017.

Assange, who was arrested in the UK capital on 11 April, was sentenced to 50 weeks in jail on 1 May for breaching his bail conditions back in 2012, when he took refuge inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges that have since been dropped.

READ MORE: WikiLeaks Claims DOJ Building Assange Case On Espionage Act, Punishable By Death

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At the same time, the United States is seeking Assange's extradition on charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion in cooperation with Manning.

Late on Thursday, Manning was released from a US prison after having spent 62 days there for her refusal to testify before a grand jury on her past association with WikiLeaks. Media reported that Manning's lawyers had already received a new subpoena requiring her to appear before another grand jury, which may result in new detention for her.

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